3 min read October 2023 — Emily Schapira, president & CEO of Philadelphia Energy Authority, sat down with Invest: to discuss the clean energy and energy efficiency projects in Philadelphia’s pipeline, how the narrative of implementing energy efficient processes has evolved and prioritizing equitable workforce development.
What has been keeping you busiest this past year?
Our biggest project over the past year was the launch of our city street lighting overhaul. It is the largest energy efficiency project the city has ever taken on. It’s a $92 million budget neutral project that will replace 132,000 fixtures over the next two years. They will touch every neighborhood in the entire city, so it has taken a while to get through the procurement, fixture selection and issuance of the bond. I’m so excited that this was the first bond issuance for the Philadelphia Energy Authority, and it was also the city’s first sustainability bond. There are both social and environmental metrics associated with the project. This project alone will reduce the city’s carbon footprint by 9%.
How is Greater Philadelphia responding to the federal push for sustainability in its own way?
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is certainly game-changing for Philadelphia. As a city that has not had a terribly favorable state legislative or regulatory environment for clean energy, the IRA creates a whole host of incentives that could bring Pennsylvania closer to where many other states already are. We believe it will bring billions of dollars to the city and the region in subsidies, rebates, grants and tax credits. We are working closely with the Office of Sustainability and the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, along with many other partners, to work with the draw-down of those federal funds. There are a number of grant opportunities, but the IRA is about 75% rebates and tax credits, so there is a ton of education that will be needed as those rules begin rolling out about what is available for different types of energy projects and how that might change the way a project is developed going forward. We are also working closely with the city and School District of Philadelphia to ensure they are taking advantage of these opportunities. Governments and nonprofits can now utilize tax credit incentives through elective pay, which has changed all the math for institutional actors on solar and energy usage.
Since its inception, how has Philadelphia Green Capital Corp impacted the region?
We launched PGCC, Philadelphia’s green bank, about two years ago with the goal of ensuring affordable, appropriate financing tools for clean energy projects were available equitably across the region. PGCC is partnered with all types of lenders in the region to bring capital to those who need it at any income level, credit score, neighborhood, or zip code in order to do energy efficiency and clean energy projects. Billions of dollars in IRA funding are available for green banks, and PGCC’s pipeline and track record ensure the Philadelphia region will have access to those dollars..
What partnerships are in place with higher education institutions to secure a pipeline of talent skilled in clean energy and sustainability?
We have a unique situation in Philadelphia in that we have employers saying there is a labor shortage, particularly in construction, energy and infrastructure, and a high unemployment rate among young Black men that is consistently more than double the city’s average. We are certainly not utilizing the assets we have in the city already. Our programming on workforce pairs all of our projects and programs with some kind of workforce development, including those specifically focused on solar and energy efficiency in residential and commercial environments. We focus on a population that has historically been marginalized in Philadelphia that we think we can connect to employers in a different way. These programs have been running for four years, and we also have a high-school vocational program. We collaborate with the Community College of Philadelphia and Temple University to ensure a continuous pathway from high school through college and beyond to clean energy careers.
What are the long-term goals of the Philadelphia Energy Authority?
In 2016, we launched an initiative called the Philadelphia Energy Campaign, a commitment to invest over $1 billion in 10 years to create 10,000 jobs. By the end of 2023, we will be at about $800 million invested and about 7,000 jobs created so far. That is year seven of the initiative. We still have a few years to go, but it really demonstrates that you don’t need a lot of up-front investment to build the clean energy market in our region. Energy efficiency and clean energy is financeable, cost-effective and makes sense across all different types of buildings and institutional environments. The city has committed to be carbon neutral by 2050 in its municipal government footprint with plans to roll out larger programs.
What are your priorities and outlook for the organization and Philadelphia’s next two to three years in the clean energy space?
We have about $500 million in projects already on deck for the next three years, and we expect to exceed our original $1 billion projection by a significant amount. We are excited to see a lot of these programs catch on and become part of the natural development ecosystem. We are also thrilled to see Energix bring Adams Solar to fruition. This project was many years in the making, and marks one of the largest municipal solar projects in the U.S. It will power nearly 25% of Philadelphia’s municipal electricity use and helps drive the rapidly growing solar market in PA
The most important priorities over the next few years are to draw down as much funding as we can from the Inflation Reduction Act and to work collaboratively with the Commonwealth to ensure long-lasting benefits come from those funds. We will be planning to battle the next effects of climate change, as well.
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